Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Time management for leaders - the real story!

Welcome to 42 new subscribers! Don't hesitate to pass on this link to your colleagues; the more the merrier.

I'll continue the series on "what to do TODAY" soon, but in the meantime, I had the opportunity recently to write acolumn for SELAM (the Society for Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine) on the topic of time management for leaders. I received permission to post the link to the article here, and so I'm "doing it now" (I hope some of you got this very small time management joke...).

Since the mission statement captures is so well, I'll simply quote: "SELAM is a professional organization dedicated to the advancement and promotion of women executives in academic medicine, healthcare and the sciences."

If you are a woman in the health sciences, interested in networking with peers, and developing your leadership skills via a variety of venues, take a look at becoming a member. You'll get, among other things, a regular newsletter focusing on leadership issues; reduced rates for conferences; and an instant professional network.

And now, time management for leaders...

You have just assumed or accepted a position of leadership as a division or center director, department chair, associate/assistant dean, or dean. You have worked for years toward this goal -- or, you have been caught completely by surprise at the offer. Your thoughts right now are mostly, as they should be, about the things you will be able to do: develop young faculty, improve curriculum and training programs, build the research and clinical capacity of your division/department/college, and improve your own leadership skills, perhaps with a goal of bigger leadership posts in the future. You are anticipating new responsibilities related to finance/budget, strategic planning, and - please don't forget - managing personnel issues. What might be missing from your preparation are plans to deal with the new demands on your time. In two decades of experience in faculty affairs, I have worked with and observed dozens of new directors and chairs, and I've noticed that these new demands often come as an (unpleasant) surprise.